The atlas · A cuisine · Galicia — Spain's green, rainy north-west corner, on the Atlantic above Portugal

Galician

Also Cociña galega, Galicia
One of Spanish cooking's regional kitchens · all 7 side by side

Spain's great seafood coast — octopus, mussels, scallops and barnacles — with a green, rainy inland of pork, turnip tops, soft cows' milk cheeses and pies baked to share.

Where it comes from

Galicia faces the Atlantic, and its rías — long, drowned river valleys — are some of the richest shellfish waters in Europe. Mussels are farmed on rafts in the Rías Baixas, and the scallop shell became the badge of the pilgrims walking to Santiago de Compostela.

Inland it's small farms, rain and green fields: pigs, cows, potatoes, turnip tops and cabbage, and a cooking that's plain and generous rather than elaborate. Much of it turns on boiling — octopus, lacón, the pot of caldo — finished with olive oil and pimentón.

It's a place many people left, for the Americas above all, and they took its empanadas with them. Those who stayed kept the feasts: nearly every village has a festa for something it grows or catches.

Where in it

  1. Santiago and PadrónThe pilgrims' city, with its almond cake and its market, and Padrón just to the south, where the little green peppers — mostly mild, sometimes hot — are grown.Tarta de SantiagoPimientos de Padrón
  2. O Carballiño and OurenseInland, far from the sea, and yet a capital of octopus: O Carballiño's festival of pulpo á feira draws crowds every summer.Pulpo a la gallega
  3. Vigo and the Rías BaixasMussel rafts on the rías, oyster stalls in Vigo's old town, and the albariño vineyards around Cambados.Empanada gallega
  4. Lugo and the interiorCattle and pig country inside Roman walls, where lacón con grelos is the Carnival meal and a pot of caldo keeps out the winter.Lacón con grelosCaldo gallego
  5. A Coruña and the Costa da MorteA port city of seafood bars, facing the wild coast where percebes — goose barnacles — are prised off the rocks between the waves.

How it cooks

Boiling in copper
Octopus dipped in and out three times, then boiled in big copper pots and cut with scissors — the pulpeira's skill.
Á feira
Olive oil, pimentón and coarse salt over boiled octopus, potatoes or fish — the Galician finish.
Ajada
Garlic warmed in olive oil with pimentón, poured over boiled fish and potatoes.
Shellfish, barely cooked
Mussels, clams and scallops steamed or grilled just until they open, with little added.
The empanada crust
A bread-like dough rolled thin, filled, and brushed with the oil from the filling so the crust takes its colour.

Always in the kitchen

olive oilpimentónoctopusmusselsscallopsclamspotatoesturnip topscabbagewhite beanslacónchorizotetilla cheesealmondscornmealalbariño

Cook from it

Tonight, with what's good in October

Its classics

GalicianPulpo a la gallegaBoiled octopus cut into rounds with scissors, dressed with olive oil, pimentón and coarse salt, on a wooden plate.No one here has made it yetGalicianEmpanada gallegaA large, flat pie of bread-like dough filled with onions and peppers stewed in olive oil and tuna, pork or shellfish, baked and cut into squares.No one here has made it yetGalicianCaldo gallegoA plain, restoring broth of turnip tops or cabbage, potatoes and white beans, flavoured with a little cured pork.No one here has made it yetGalicianLacón con grelosCured pork shoulder boiled with turnip tops, chorizo and potatoes, and served on one great platter with olive oil and pimentón.No one here has made it yetGalicianTarta de SantiagoA flat, moist almond cake with little or no flour, dusted with icing sugar around a stencil of the cross of Saint James.No one here has made it yetGalicianPimientos de PadrónSmall green peppers fried whole in olive oil until blistered, then salted — most of them mild, now and then one hot.No one here has made it yet

Cooked here

No one here has cooked Galician yet.